Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

“Our Community Comes First”: Investigating Recruitment Ads That Represent and Appeal to Black Women for Online, HIV-Related Research Studies

  • Published:
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Black women are underrepresented in health-related research. Consulting Black women in the creation of recruitment materials may help increase their representation in research studies, but few of these recruitment materials have been evaluated. This manuscript reports on the impact of two ads (one featuring older women and one featuring younger women) created through multiple focus group sessions with Black women. The purpose of the ads were to recruit Black women to participate in an online research study about HIV prevention and pre-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP.

Materials and Methods

Questions about the ads were embedded in the eligibility screener for inclusion in the online parent research study. Respondents were asked which ad they saw, what they liked about it, and what about the ad piqued their interest in the study.

Results

In total, 301 Black women completed the eligibility screener for the online study and answered questions pertaining to the two ads. Most participants reported seeing the ad with younger women (260/301, 86.4%). Representation of Black women (n = 70), ad design (n = 64), relevance to Black women and the Black community (n = 60), and comprehensiveness of ad content (n = 38) were the top 4 ad features respondents liked. Relevance to Black women and the Black community (n = 104) as well as ad content (n = 54) (i.e., study purpose, location, duration, images, incentive) were the top two reasons provided about ads that piqued respondent’s interest in the online study.

Conclusion

Findings showcase how recruitment ads informed by Black women could help increase their interest and participation in research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Zahm SH, Pottern LM, Lewis DR, Ward MH, White DW. Inclusion of women and minorities in occupational cancer epidemiologic research. J Occup Med. 1994;36(8):842–7.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Svensson CK. Representation of American blacks in clinical trials of new drugs. Jama. 1989;261(2):263–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Hall WD. Representation of blacks, women, and the very elderly (aged > or = 80) in 28 major randomized clinical trials. Ethn Dis. 1999;9(3):333–40.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Mak WW, Law RW, Alvidrez J, Pérez-Stable EJ. Gender and ethnic diversity in NIMH-funded clinical trials: review of a decade of published research. Adm Policy Ment Health Ment Health Serv Res. 2007;34(6):497–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Isler MR, Brown AL, Eley N, Mathews A, Batten K, Rogers R, et al. Curriculum development to increase minority research literacy for HIV prevention research: a CBPR approach. Prog Community Health Partnersh-Res Educ Action. 2014;8(4):511–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. George S, Duran N, Norris K. A systematic review of barriers and facilitators to minority research participation among African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders. Am J Public Health. 2014;104(2):e16–31.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Erratum: weight management and physical activity throughout the Cancer Care Continuum. CA Cancer J Clin. 2018;68(3):232.

  8. Taylor RE. Pharmacological and cultural considerations in alcohol treatment clinical trials: issues in clinical research related to race and ethnicity. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research; 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Epstein S. Inclusion: the politics of difference in medical research. University of Chicago Press; 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Brooks MM, Paschal AM, Sly JR, Hsiao T. African American women and clinical trials: perceived barriers to participation and potential solutions. Am J Health Res. 2009;24(2).

  11. Katz RV. Race, medical research distrust, perceived harm, and willingness to participate in cardiovascular prevention trials. SMJ. 2008;101(7).

  12. Otado J, Kwagyan J, Edwards D, Ukaegbu A, Rockcliffe F, Osafo N. Culturally competent strategies for recruitment and retention of African American populations into clinical trials. CTS. 2015;8(5):460–6.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Jones JH. Bad blood: the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. New and expanded ed. New York; 1993.

  14. Wolinetz CD, Collins FS. Recognition of research participants’ need for autonomy: remembering the legacy of Henrietta Lacks. Jama. 2020;324(11):1027–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Lacks H. science must right a historical wrong. Nature. 2020;585(7823):7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Taani MH, Zabler B, Fendrich M, Schiffman R. Lessons learned for recruitment and retention of low-income African Americans. Contemp Clin Trials Commun. 2020;17:100533.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Wallace DC, Bartlett R. Recruitment and retention of African American and Hispanic girls and women in research. Public Health Nurs. 2013;30(2):159–66.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Qualls CD. Recruitment of African American adults as research participants for a language in aging study: example of a principled, creative, and culture-based approach. J Allied Health. 2002;31(4):241–6.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Satia JA, Galanko JA, Rimer BK. Methods and strategies to recruit African Americans into cancer prevention surveillance studies. CEBP. 2005;14(3):718–21.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hammer CS. Strategies for recruiting African American and Hispanic women as participants in research. Contemp Issues Commun Sci Disord. 2000;27:127–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Taylor JY. Recruitment of three generations of African American women into genetics research. J Transcult Nurs. 2009;20(2):219–26.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Williams KP, Anderson AM. Two community-based strategies to recruit Black women in research. J Urban Health. 2021;98(Suppl 2):129–32.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Gilliss CL, Lee KA, Gutierrez Y, Taylor D, Beyene Y, Neuhaus J, et al. Recruitment and retention of healthy minority women into community-based longitudinal research. J Womens Health Gend Based Med. 2001;10(1):77–85.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. James D, Harville C, Efunbumi O, Babazadeh I, Ali S. “You Have to Approach Us Right”: a qualitative framework analysis for recruiting African Americans into mHealth research. Health Educ Behav. 2017;44(5):781–90.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Schmid KL, Rivers SE, Latimer AE, Salovey P. Targeting or tailoring? Mark Health Serv. 2008;28(1):32–7.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Kreuter MW, McClure SM. The role of culture in health communication. Annu Rev Public Health. 2004;25:439–55.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Kreuter MW, Wray RJ. Tailored and targeted health communication: strategies for enhancing information relevance. Am J Health Behav. 2003;27(1):S227–S32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Crane MM, Seburg EM, Levy RL, Jeffery RW, Sherwood NE. Using targeting to recruit men and women of color into a behavioral weight loss trial. Trials. 2020;21(1):537.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Brown SD, Partee PN, Feng J, Quesenberry CP, Hedderson MM, Ehrlich SF, et al. Outreach to diversify clinical trial participation: a randomized recruitment study. Clin Trials. 2015;12(3):205–11.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Fontenot HB, Abuelezam NN, Rosenberger JG, Novak D, Mayer KH, Zimet G. The impact of advertisement messaging on enrollment of young men who have sex with men for web-based research: observational study. J Med Internet Res. 2020;22(1):e16027.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Kubicek K, Robles M. Resource for integrating community voices into a research study: community advisory board toolkit. Los Angeles, CA: Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute; 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Petty RE, Heesacker M, Hughes JN. The elaboration likelihood model: implications for the practice of school psychology. J Sch Psychol. 1997;35(2):107–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Brown SD, Lee K, Schoffman DE, King AC, Crawley LM, Kiernan M. Minority recruitment into clinical trials: experimental findings and practical implications. Contemp Clin Trials. 2012;33(4):620–3.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Duerksen SC, Mikail A, Tom L, Patton A, Lopez J, Amador X, et al. Health disparities and advertising content of women’s magazines: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health. 2005;5(1):85.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Hazell V, Clarke J. Race and gender in the media: a content analysis of advertisements in two mainstream Black magazines. J Black Stud. 2008;39(1):5–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Willie TC, Knight D, Baral SD, Chan PA, Kershaw T, Mayer KH, et al. Where’s the “Everyday Black Woman”? An intersectional qualitative analysis of Black women’s decision-making regarding HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in Mississippi. BMC Public Health. 2022;22(1):1604.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  37. Hirschhorn LR, Brown RN, Friedman EE, Greene GJ, Bender A, Christeller C, et al. Black cisgender women’s PrEP knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and experience in Chicago. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2020;84(5):497–507.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Chandler R, Hull S, Ross H, Guillaume D, Paul S, Dera N, et al. The pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) consciousness of black college women and the perceived hesitancy of public health institutions to curtail HIV in black women. BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):1172.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  39. Kennedy M, Bishop D, Anderson S, Heyward M. Recruiting older African American women for a cancer screening message trial: theory, GIS maps, and church entree. Med Res Arch. 2017;5(11).

  40. Falcon R, Bridge DA, Currier J, Squires K, Hagins D, Schaible D, et al. Recruitment and retention of diverse populations in antiretroviral clinical trials: practical applications from the gender, race and clinical experience study. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2011;20(7):1043–50.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  41. Sophus A. Is PrEP for me? Knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and perspectives about PrEP among Black women living in the South (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Hawai ‘I At Mānoa); 2022.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Kleinheksel AJ, Rockich-Winston N, Tawfik H, Wyatt TR. Demystifying content analysis. Am J Pharm Educ. 2020;84(1):7113.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  43. Hsieh HF, Shannon SE. Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qual Health Res. 2005;15(9):1277–88.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Creswell JW, Clark VLP. Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Sage publications; 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Banks I. Hair matters: Beauty, power, and black women’s consciousness. NYU Press; 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Tate SA. Libidinal economies of Black hair: subverting the governance of strands, subjectivities and politics. Image Text. 2017;29(1):95–111.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Bond S, Cash TF. Black beauty: skin color and body images among African-American college women 1. J Appl Soc Psychol. 1992;22(11):874–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Craig ML. Race, beauty, and the tangled knot of a guilty pleasure. Fem Theory. 2006;7(2):159–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Tate SA. Black beauty: aesthetics, stylization, politics. Routledge; 2016.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  50. James DC, Harville C 2nd, Whitehead N, Stellefson M, Dodani S, Sears C. Willingness of African American women to participate in e-Health/m-Health research. Telemed J E Health. 2016;22(3):191–7.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  51. Resnicow K, Baranowski T, Ahluwalia JS, Braithwaite RL. Cultural sensitivity in public health: defined and demystified. Ethn Dis. 1999;9(1):10–21.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Pew Research Center. Social media in 2021. 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/. Accessed May 2023.

    Google Scholar 

  53. Pew Research Center. Social media use by race. 2017. https://www.pewinternet.org/chart/social-media-use-by-race/. Accessed May 2023.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Pew Research Center Internet & Technology. Social Media Fact Sheet. 2021. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/. Accessed May 2023.

    Google Scholar 

  55. Connor AE, Dibble KE, Visvanathan K. Utilizing social media advertisements and participant social networks to recruit African American breast cancer survivors: design and rationale. Front Public Health. 2022;10.

  56. Chenane JL, Hammond Q. Using social media to recruit participants for scholarly research: lessons from African female immigrants in the United States. J Crim Justice Educ. 2022;33(4):509–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Farr DE, Battle DA, Hall MB. Using Facebook advertisements for women’s health research: methodology and outcomes of an observational study. JMIR Form Res. 2022;6(1):e31759.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  58. Topolovec-Vranic J, Natarajan K. The use of social media in recruitment for medical research studies: a scoping review. J Med Internet Res. 2016;18(11):e286.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  59. Kapp JM, Peters C, Oliver DP. Research recruitment using Facebook advertising: big potential, big challenges. J Cancer Educ. 2013;28(1):134–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Desai M. Recruitment and retention of participants in clinical studies: critical issues and challenges. Perspect Clin Res. 2020;11(2):51–3.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  61. Kitterman DR, Cheng SK, Dilts DM, Orwoll ES. The prevalence and economic impact of low-enrolling clinical studies at an academic medical center. Acad Med. 2011;86(11):1360–6.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  62. Mendez KJW, Cudjoe J, Strohmayer S, Han HR. Recruitment and retention of women living with HIV for clinical research: a review. AIDS Behav. 2021;25(10):3267–78.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  63. Gelinas L, Pierce R, Winkler S, Cohen IG, Lynch HF, Bierer BE. Using social media as a research recruitment tool: ethical issues and recommendations. AJOB. 2017;17(3):3–14.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  64. Andrews J, Moore J, Means P, Weinberg R. When an IRB is responsible for facilitating recruitment material compliance with institutional branding standards. J Clin Res Best Pract. 2013;9:1.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Byerly WG. Working with the institutional review board. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2009;66(2):176–84.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  66. Gelinas L, Lynch HF, Largent EA, Shachar C, Cohen IG, Bierer BE. Truth in advertising: disclosure of participant payment in research recruitment materials. Ther Innov Regul Sci. 2018;52(3):268–74.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  67. Klitzman R. How IRBs view and make decisions about coercion and undue influence. J Med Ethics. 2013;39(4):224–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the contributions of the study participants.

Funding

This study was supported, in part, by the Surgeon General C. Everett Koop HIV/AIDS Research Grant from the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 S.W. 8th Street, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    Amber I. Sophus & Jason W. Mitchell

  2. Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Jessica McDermott Sales

  3. Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health, University of Hawaiʻi – Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Kathryn Braun

Authors
  1. Amber I. Sophus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jason W. Mitchell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jessica McDermott Sales
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Kathryn Braun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Amber Sophus. Data analyses were performed by Amber Sophus, and in part by Jason Mitchell and Kathryn Braun. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Amber Sophus, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amber I. Sophus.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval

The study was approved by the University of Hawaii – Manoa Institutional Review Board.

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sophus, A.I., Mitchell, J.W., Sales, J.M. et al. “Our Community Comes First”: Investigating Recruitment Ads That Represent and Appeal to Black Women for Online, HIV-Related Research Studies. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01800-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01800-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation